I've waffled back and forth over the years on whether to elaborate on Amber's dad's particular brand of evilness. I've knownbasically what happened, but have always been wary of tackling the subject. Blaine's story is finished, obviously, so I realized explaining it'd probably be a "now or never" kind of thing, and so here it is. I'm certain I like it better told this way via infodump rather than via flashbacks. Nobody wants to have to endure that.
It's not something I artificially pushed into this storyline. It kind of came out of Amber's mouth naturally when other folks at the visitation tried to talk to her in my head. If you've been to a funeral of a family member, you'll know the being-consoled-by-a-sea-of-strangers part is the bulk of the experience. I knew it had to happen, even if behind the scenes, and so the choice was whether to show this part of Amber's trip to her dad's visitation to you, or to leave it behind-the-scenes forever. I decided in favor of it. So, uh, "enjoy."